This article in Ypulse summarizes how it is not necessary to “dumb down” news in order to get teens to notice it. Newspapers have to instead think of new ways of reaching teens. USA Today has recommended creating a new website, that encompasses more photos, images, info graphics, and other ways to involve not just teens but those who lack experience with news. Here are some other recommendations from the study:

- Focus on a few items, illustrated with photos, and explain clearly but briefly what is happening and why it matters.

- The home page should provide a general sense of the news and a seductive pitch for each story in the simplest, most visually enticing manner.

- Breaking news should be supplemented with basic information, background material, definitions and other insights about the topics.

Make sure check out the full post here.

Fred Kleisner

President & CEO

Morgans Hotel Group

Fred J. Kleisner is the President, Chief Executive Officer and one of the Directors. Mr. Kleisner has been one of the Morgans Hotel Group Directors since February 2006 and has been the President and Chief Executive Officer (including interim President and Chief Executive Officer) since September 2007. From March 2000 to August 2005, Mr. Kleisner was the Chief Executive Officer of Wyndham International, a hotel company that owned, leased, managed and franchised hotels and resorts in the U.S., Canada, Mexico, the Caribbean and Europe. Mr. Kleisner also served as the Chairman of Wyndham International’s board from October 13, 2000. From August 1999 to October 2000, Mr. Kleisner served as President and from July 1999 to March 2000, Mr. Kleisner also served as Chief Operating Officer. From March 1998 to August 1999, he served as President and Chief Operating Officer of The Americas for Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc. Hotel Group. His experience in the industry also includes senior positions with Westin Hotels and Resorts, where he served as President and Chief Operating Officer from 1995 to 1998; Interstate Hotels Company where he served as Executive Vice President and Group President of Operations from 1990 to 1995; The Sheraton Corporation, where he served as Senior Vice President, Director of Operations, North America Division – East from 1985 to 1990; and Hilton Hotels, where for 16 years he served as General Manager of several landmark hotels, including The Waldorf Astoria and The Waldorf Towers in New York, The Capital Hilton in Washington, D.C., and The Hilton Hawaiian Village in Honolulu. Mr. Kleisner is also a director of Kindred Healthcare, Inc., a healthcare services company, and serves on that company’s audit committee and compliance and quality committee. Mr. Kleisner, who holds a B.A. degree in Hotel Management from Michigan State University, completed advanced studies at the University of Virginia and Catholic University of America.

Biography courtesy of Forbes.com

USAToday reports that some congressmen are targeting complicated ads that promote a drug to address a malady that you may not know you have. As Washington tries to reach agreement on a sweeping overhaul of health care, direct-to-consumer advertising, or DTC, is being targeted as a contributor to the high cost of health care.

“There are legitimate reasons to criticize DTC, but it doesn’t cause problems for pricing, it raises demand,” says Bob Ehrlich, CEO of DTC Perspectives, a publishing and consulting company that specializes in DTC marketing. “As a citizen you have to take it for what it’s worth. It’s advertising. But it’s advertising that has to be true.”

Nonetheless, lawmakers want to rid the airwaves of them. Rep. James Moran, D-Va., wants them eliminated on the grounds of decency standards. Rep. Henry Waxman, wants drugmakers to refrain from advertising them for a certain period of time after receiving market approval from the Food and Drug Administration. Others, including Rep. Jerrold Nadler,  want to amend the federal tax code to bar pharmaceutical companies from deducting the cost of the ads as a business expense.

Should DTC pharmaceutical ads be banned? We’d like to hear your thoughts.

This post on the NY Times discusses how advertisers and bloggers must be careful when posting ads on their blog space. The National Advertising Review Council are planning to make their first decision regarding ad space on blogs soon. They are looking for clear disclosure when a company is paying for a blog site or paying for product reviews.

Advertisers and bloggers are under extreme pressure from state attorney generals like Andrew Cuomo of NY who recently sided with a cosmetic company to help protect against fraudulent reviews and deception. We’ll keep a close eye on this one and report any updates on the ruling.

According to Chapel Hill News, the businesses in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, will be uniting to promote Football Weekends for the University of California. The media campaign will focus on the slogan “It’s your school. Your team. Your town. So why not make it your day? There’s a lot to do all around Chapel Hill, so stay and play on game day.”

The united front is aimed to promote community, hometown spirit, and economic activity.  Visit the Touchdowntown website here.

Jennifer Bosavage of CRN.com seems to think so, according to Bosavage: book publishers are finally catching on to the age-old marketing method of offering something free in order to encourage sales of additional products.In a variation of “buy one, get one,” publishers are offering best-sellers for free on Amazon and other retailers. The latest is the Kindle version of James Patterson’s “The Angel Experiment,” a four-year-old release that is the first book of the “Maximum Ride” young adult series. It joins Greg Keyes’ “The Briar King” and Joseph Finder’s “Paranoia” as the biggest movers on Amazon.com’s site in recent days.

Can the claim of success for e-books just be because they are free or is there something to be said for making online book stores carry more free e-books? We’d like to hear your thoughts on this debate.

This article in The NY Times highlights how management has restricted its producers, sportscasters, and employees from having sports-related blogs, twitter accounts, and other social media outlets unless otherwise approved by management. Apparently, they are worried about internal policies and discussions about stories get reported getting out there. ESPN might be one of the first companies actually restricting instead of allowing employees to have access to these networks. Do you know of any others?

The LA Times wrote earlier this week that very few of the normal movie marketing audiences have seen GI Joe.  Instead of having a red carpet premier in LA or Manhattan, they’ve instead taken the movie straight to the heartland.  They’ve targeted their marketing efforts straight to those who will enjoy the movie.  The article suggests that Kansas City, Charlotte, Columbus and Grand Rapids have functioned as key advertisement cities.  The movie premiered at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland, and the movie was a key force in the Kid Rock and Lynyrd Skynyrd tour and at the Country Music Awards.

What do you think of this marketing strategy?  Paramount Pictures has chosen to take their movie straight to their fanbase and has trumped the normal movie promotional markets in LA and New York.  Are more movies or products likley to do this in the future?

Image Source

We’ve heard a lot recently about personal branding and personal marketing–but what can it really do for you in your career? Can your Tweets, Facebook posts and blogs land you the job of your dreams–or at least a job. Here’s a great story from Rachel Levy, who was laid off last year from her non-profit job. Rachel used Twitter and Jewish Jobs to land a position. There has been coverage of people Tweeting for brands that they link or even setting up websites to showcase their talents. Have you seen any other great stories of successful social media marketing to get a job? We’d love to hear your stories.

After Building a Personal Brand, Landing a Marketing Job

This article in the NY Times highlights how YouTube has created a News Near You feature where local news stations can upload relevant videos. For now YouTube is collecting videos from some non-traditional sources like newspapers, radio stations, and colleges. What’s interesting here is that this can essentially replace tv stations in the future, eliminating the need to watch news on tv. Should we also expect advertisements to be displayed in online news reels on YouTube?